We're a handful of days into 2017: Have you made it to the gym yet? Kept your promise to cut out cigarettes, gluten, trans fats, or being around children under age 10? In other words, how's that New Year's resolution going for you? If you happen to live in Plano, perhaps not too badly. The North Texas city landed at No. 5 in the nation on a list of those good at turning over a new leaf on Jan. 1.
The "Best and Worst Cities for Keeping Your New Year's Resolutions" list is part of WalletHub's larger "Most Sinful Cities" report. You might recall WalletHub. We were rather skeptical -- beside ourselves, even -- when the financial advisory website dubbed several local cities among the "Worst Places to Celebrate New Year's" last month.
For this study, the website compared the 150 largest cities in the United States with special attention to statistical data indicating the region is "conducive to self-improvement." Items like "housing affordability" and "unemployment rate" counted toward that measurement, as did more resolution-specific metrics like "gyms per capita" and "smoking rate."
It's worth noting, though, that we're dealing with theoretical residents. The study hasn't actually checked in each December to make sure Buck Wayne [42, lives in a single-story ranch house near Hedgcoxe and Independence] or Samantha el Dorado [28, a denizen of a 515 square foot loft above Ginger Man at the Shops at Legacy] have really stuck to their goals because those are fake people who happen to sound kind of real that I just made up, kind of like the rankings on WalletHub's mostly rhetorical list.
However, Plano ranked highly for something positive, so: Yay, North Texas.
The city did especially well under the study's strictures due to its public school system and median income. Guess when it comes to making a positive change, having a little pocket change doesn't hurt.
In 2016, the phrase "getting a little Plano in here" was lobbed as an insult. Perhaps this year, it simply means the person in question "is quite trim" or "doesn't bite fingernails." That said, can we get an official count on the city's "number of vape stores per capita"? Seems like a lot. Strong gut feeling says Plano isn't entirely on the straight and narrow.
Other Texas cities fared decently on WalletHub's list, with Austin coming in at No. 9, Houston at 34 and Dallas at 40. Once again, poor ol' Garland took a hit (landing at 75) for being slightly too populous for its own good.
